News stories from Tuesday December 2, 1980

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

A new United States reply to Iran, clarifying the Carter administration's position on Iran's conditions for releasing the 52 American hostages, was delivered in Algiers to the Algerian officials who are acting as intermediaries in the negotiations. [New York Times] Key cabinet choices have been decided by President-elect Reagan, according to Republican sources. They said that Alexander Haig would be named Secretary of State, Caspar Weinberger would be Secretary of Defense, Walter Wriston would be Treasury Secretary and William French Smith would be Attorney General. [New York Times] Only minor changes in an arms pact should be sought by the Reagan administration, in the opinion of former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. He also said it would be a major mistake for Washington to try to link a new arms accord with Soviet actions on other matters. In an interview, Mr. Vance termed "hogwash" a recent suggestion made by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the White House national security adviser, that Mr. Vance and some other Democrats were overly fearful of competing assertively with Moscow. [New York Times] A change in monitoring arms accords has been proposed by President-elect Reagan's transition team at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The team has concluded that the agency has been spending too much money to achieve new agreements with Moscow while neglecting surveillance of possible Soviet violations of existing accords. [New York Times] Howard Baker was elected the majority leader of the next Senate by Republican members of the chamber. The Senator from Tennessee was the only leader chosen from east of the Mississippi as the Republicans gave other posts to Westerners. [New York Times] The Alaska lands bill was signed by President Carter, ending a four-year struggle between environmentalists and developers over the use of more than 104 million acres of federal holdings. The scattered tracts in Alaska, which are bigger than California, will become national parks, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas. [New York Times] An environmental shield was upheld in an 8-to-0 decision by the Supreme Court. The Justices ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency could enforce its water pollution standards without regard to whether a specific company could afford to comply with the restrictions. [New York Times] A key waste cleanup bill is in jeopardy in the waning days of the 96th Congress. A measure to establish a fund for the removal of hazardous waste and chemical spills was withdrawn from the House floor by the Democratic leadership just before a scheduled vote. The bill is to be returned to the floor tomorrow, but backers said its prospects were no longer good. [New York Times] An alleged television fraud case will not be prosecuted, the Los Angeles County District Attorney announced. He said that a year-long investigation had indicated that there were substantial questions involving "fair dealing," but added that there was "insufficient evidence" to bring criminal charges against officers of Spelling-Goldberg Productions involving assertions about the sharing of profits of the "Charlie's Angels" series. [New York Times] Syria appeared to soften its stand on Jordan, saying that their tense relations would end if King Hussein agreed to several demands, including a pledge of continued recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of Palestinians. Meanwhile, Syria was said to be withdrawing some troops near the Jordanian frontier. [New York Times] A purge was carried out in Poland amid a mood of crisis over labor unrest. The Communist Party leadership dismissed four members of the ruling Politburo and returned a former Interior Minister to that body. The move was viewed as a successful attempt by Stanislaw Kania, the party leader, to consolidate his power, but he will have to work closely with the new leader, a general who is known as resourceful and ruthless. [New York Times] A warning against intervention in Poland was issued by the White House. It said that any military action by outside forces would severely damage East-West relations. Another warning against intervention in Poland was issued by the government leaders of the nine-member European Common Market. They made the statement after holding a regular two-day meeting in Luxembourg. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 974.40 (+4.95, +0.51%)
S&P Composite: 136.97 (-0.24, -0.17%)
Arms Index: 0.68

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	543	20.42
Declines	1,038	26.40
Unchanged	400	5.52
Total Volume		52.34

* in millions of shares

Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish.

Market Index Trends
Date	DJIA	S&P	Volume*
December 1, 1980	969.45	137.21	48.17
November 28, 1980	993.34	140.52	34.27
November 26, 1980	989.68	140.17	55.34
November 25, 1980	982.68	139.33	55.83
November 24, 1980	978.75	138.31	51.13
November 21, 1980	989.93	139.11	55.93
November 20, 1980	1000.17	140.40	60.17
November 19, 1980	991.04	139.06	69.24
November 18, 1980	997.95	139.70	70.38
November 17, 1980	986.26	137.75	50.30